Court of Foxes by Christianna Brand

A young widow proves that modesty can be deceptive when she becomes the toast of London

The Marchesa goes to the theater accompanied only by her maid. She dresses in pure white, without any jewels or powder to compete with her golden hair and blue eyes. In the London society of King George III, this modesty is enough to cause a sensation. Night after night, every bachelor in London sends her flowers, hoping to win an audience with this mysterious, enigmatic beauty, but none have come close to a seat in her box.

None of them guess that the Marchesa wears no jewels because she cannot afford them. None of them know that she is not a Marchesa at all. She is Marigold Brown, a poor girl from Gloucestershire who is about to mount the greatest con London has ever seen—if falling in love doesn’t get in her way.

“You have to reach for the greatest of Great Names to find Brand’s rivals in the subtleties of the trade.” —New York Times

“One of the great masters of English detective fiction.” —Francis M. Nevins, author of Cornell Woolrich

“[Brand] was ready to jig endlessly with her pieces, to reject and replace until there was not a single gap that her reader would detect.” —H.R.F. Keating, author of Crime & Mystery: The 100 Best Books